Ideal FRC Game?

[thatprogrammer]

Note: This thread as created to discuss what you would consider your idea FRC Game. While some jokes are fine, try to keep this discussion a bit more on the serious side, please.
What ideas do you have for an ideal game? We often discuss this in threads about the game for specific years, but those get abandoned after the year actually starts. We could use this for discussion in 2016, 2017, and even past that.
Only condition: Assume this game uses the current control system.
You can read a game idea I posted here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...&postcount=222
I had another idea today that I like even better. I will post it once I can use a desktop.

[xXhunter47Xx]

I think a game where you have a drive-train or game mechanism restraint would be cool, because you have to be extra creative since the frame/mechanism has to be a specific dimension or build style.

[Team3266Spencer]

Originally Posted by xXhunter47Xx

I think a game where you have a drive-train or game mechanism restraint would be cool, because you have to be extra creative since the frame/mechanism has to be a specific dimension or build style.

Lunacy... I would pick freedom (like this year) over harsh restraints any year.

[xXhunter47Xx]

Originally Posted by Team3266Spencer

Lunacy... I would pick freedom (like this year) over harsh restraints any year.

I was thinking more of dimensional constraints, as in you must have a triangular frame no larger than 24" x 24" x 24" or something.

[GeeTwo]

My team started with Rebound Rumble, which I was marginally involved with. I've been far more "inside" the past three years. Perhaps I'm a bit of a masochist, but I think that the best of all possible FRC games would include some of the challenges that we were unable to meet.

From Rebound Rumble and Ultimate Ascent: I like the whole concept that there are two basically contradictory sets of requirements. This makes game strategy and prioritizing functional points crucial, which is really the key to sound engineering.

From all four games so far: There must be multiple semi-obvious ways to achieve the required game activities. Non-obvious ways are another bonus.

Autonomous bonuses - this year's game is pretty good, in that it has several distinct ways to score autonomous points. Autonomous should probably be worth 10-20% of the points in seeding rounds.

RR & RR: Coopertition points: A wonderful way to promote GP. Keep this up!

Overall, the 4-year cycle in which 4n is "large balls", 4n+2 is "small balls", and the odd years are "non-balls" seems to work well. Each game should be different enough from the previous game(s) to be a new challenge.

Bottom line - something different. I believe they're doing well so far, though I do miss the end game of 2012 and 2013 which was completely at odds with the main game.

[Jaql]

Personally, I liked the direction FIRST was going with Aerial Assist. Fast-paced, cooperative, easy to understand games that had everyone excited. The head-to-head aspect was fantastic as usual and even my friends who weren't in FIRST got stoked on it.

I'd love to see some mix of Rebound Rumble and Aerial Assist in the end. A game based around a ball game piece being transferred from robot to robot from one end of the field to the other into a scoring platform. I love watching the more "physical" games that involve defense strategies. Games like Recycle Rush are rather dull with no alliance interaction.

It's important to balance the challenging aspects of a game with the viewer excitement when they watch it. Aside from 24 people driving, the other hundreds of people have to enjoy watching matches.

I would also include some elements of Aerial Ascent in my game. I really enjoyed the secondary objectives at the end. Perhaps my ideal game would be somewhat like field hockey, with a ball being dribbled from one end to the other. More passes = more points. Start with two balls of your color in your side of the field and you bring these to the other end in autonomous and score them. After, you can feed in up to three white balls per alliance which can be scored by any alliance. These balls can be contacted by any robot and should be brought down the field.

You score extra points for crossing the ball over the middle of the field horizontally (i.e. bring it from the left human player station to the right goal on the other side of the field) and extra points for passing to other members of your alliance. The other alliance can intercept your drives and take possesion of your ball to gain points for their alliance. If they manage to block a goal and return it for a score, they double any points they would have scored on that drive.

In the last 20 seconds, the goal is to be the only alliance with robots on top of an "island" platform surrounded by slanted ramps. You can push other robots back down in the last 10 seconds. You have to have 2 robots from your alliance in order to score, and the other alliance must have less than 2. If both alliances have 2 or 3 robots on the platform, no points are scored.

Obviously point values would have to be determined for each action after playtesting for a while, but I think this would be a much better game than Recycle Rush IMO.

[thatprogrammer]

Sorry for the late reply, was waiting to see Recycle Rush in action for 6 weeks before deciding on what I'd like in the future.

Name: ???

Game pieces per an alliance: 90x 8.5" balls, 1 70 pound movable scoring object, and 5 special balls.

Game Field: The field is flat, except for a 10' long and wide, 1' tall goal.

Objective: Teams must score the balls into either the 15' x 1' high goal, or the 3' x 5' low goals. They can also place their MSO onto a platform in the center of the field for extra points.

Robot Size limits: 120" perimeter and 60" height in transport config; these dimensions are increased to 130" perimeter and 78" Height once on the field. Teams cannot disassemble parts and attach them like this year, the robot must be capable of expanding by itself. Robots may be up to 10' tall in the goalie zone, which is a 27' x 5' rectangle around the goals.

Autonomous: Teams can be preloaded with up to 3 balls each. Their are 3 balls right under the centered high goal, and 3 in each corner. Each ball scored into the high goal is worth 5 points, and each ball in the low goal is worth 2 points.

Tele-op: Each alliance can load from either the human player ramp (Similar to the loaders in 2013), or grab balls that human players throw onto the floor. Each ball scored in the high goal is worth 3 points, and each ball scored in the low goal is worth 1 point. Robots may NOT hold more than 15 balls at once. By placing a MOS on the center of the field *the center is divided into a red and blue section*, the team claims that MOS as their own. The other team may NOT touch this MOS.

End Game: Teams may take special balls and place them in their MOS. Each ball is worth 15 points in addition to the 10 points a MOS gives a team.

[kgzak]

So far my favorite game in my participation in FIRST was Lunancy. I don't think I have seen a perfect game and a perfect game would only exist for one season and then it would be old again. No matter the game, people will find faults with the game. I really love the game this year and don't find it boring. If I had to design a game that would be perfect to me it would be something like the following:

The game would have minimal rules like this year. The game piece would be something strange and awkward to hold. This would force people to make ingenious ideas to hold more than one game piece. I am not a fan of balls as they are way overdone and end up being the same type of design over and over again. Their would be infinite game pieces (They get retuned to the field when scored) making no perfect game and leaves it up to the teams to create the perfect game. Something like Auto at the end of the game would be amazing because it would make software development hard as you would need to account for where you end. I would like minimal human player involvement and put the robots to the test instead of human players. Most people will probably disagree with my idea though.

[白巨人]

I've only been around for two seasons, but what I would like is a game involving strategy and head-on competition, like Aerial Assist had. But I also like the fact that teams in Recycle Rush could focus on different ways to score points with different elements rather than being forced to use one piece the entire time. Furthermore, Human Players got to have a more significant role this year as opposed to just kind of standing there most of the match.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Jaql

More passes = more points.

This was one of the things about Aerial Assist that I thought was great on paper, but did not turn out so well in execution. There were few pairs of robots which could efficiently pass the ball to each other - most of the transfers either involved a human player as an intermediary or the receiving robot taking possession of the ball after it was essentially stationary on the floor. If this sort of thing happens again, some sort of (voluntary) standard needs to be developed among the teams.

[YAK'ker]

Breakaway - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEHAj3EmpMw - was one of my favorites, simply because it was fast-paced and offered more course challenges (hella high humps) than others. It also gave teams with lower resources a great chance to come up with a robot that could score well. Teams that were tech-savvy could really do well with camera-sighting and autonomous play.

I also liked the fact that we could easily transport this robot. Seems like they just get taller and taller.

As I recall, the spectator-friendly aspect to this game was emphasized. OK, now you can list the video of Guru Kamen getting the ball to the head....

[EricH]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

If this sort of thing happens again, some sort of (voluntary) standard needs to be developed among the teams.

That funny sound you hear is me laughing.

2010: "Hey, for suspensions, we should come up with a standard attachment system so that we can make that work." Sole result: one of the MI teams (I forget who, but I think it was 2337) simply copied the tower onto their robot. Most other teams didn't bother hanging off of them.

2011: "Hey, for those coop points, we should develop a standard minibot deployment system." Result: Discuss, discuss, discuss--crickets. AKAIK, nobody standardized a deployment system.

[Levi Madden]

I was thinking about a hockey style game, bring back the floor from Lunacy and play hockey.

[Mykey]

I was looking to start a thread about game ideas...

I searched and found this one. At least I am not restarting an old topic or necro-ing what has been laid to rest.

I think FRC needs some shooting and defense to balance the Recycle Rush.

It would be fun to use badminton shuttlecocks as the game pieces. Also, have a low height limit on the bots that can only be crossed with a badminton racquet for defense/hitting flying game pieces. The odd shaped game pieces and the high amount of drag would make interesting but not impossible shooting/launching/control issues.

or...

Have a ton of whiffle balls on the field and have them be worth low points. Having a field that looks almost like a popcorn popper would be a blast. Also... they are light enough that fans/blowers could be used for defense. Rapid pick up and shooting would be awesome. The human players could use a couple of Jai Alai style ball throwers. Another advantage of whiffle balls is that they are low cost and not very damaging when they "go renegade" from the field.

No matter what the next game is I sincerely hope it is fast and exciting to watch and play.

<-- I added this because it is cool. No real reason.

[TheModMaster8]

I want a game were robots can use any form of wheeled motion aka tank treads, tires/wheels they have to be like legs or hovercraft kinda motion, as for the game elements i was thinking along the lines of, different terrain like elevated surfaces and bumps, and you would have to transfer heavy objects to the other side